ARE SELF-CONFIDENT PEOPLE HEALTHIER?

Are Self-Confident People Healthier?

It should be no surprise that your emotions affect your mind and body. The link between emotional health and physical health is powerful. And having a healthy dose of self-confidence influences your emotions in a positive way.

Unfortunately, the reverse is true as well. The negative emotions which go with low self-confidence include anger, sadness, frustration, and self-loathing. These feelings often lead to anxiety, high levels of stress, and depression.

Researchers continue to find the ways in which stress and depression weaken the body’s immune system and increase levels of inflammation. Both of these things have been associated with heart disease, auto-immune conditions, and certain types of cancer. It’s an area which continues to be of interest to scientists. The mind-body connection is finally getting attention from conventional medicine.

Emotions and Your Immune System

Scientists don’t understand the biological processes at play, but studies show that elevated levels of stress release increased amounts of the hormone cortisol which suppresses our immune system.

And while most people know that a healthy immune system protects us from catching a cold or getting the flu, it now appears that it also plays a part in helping fight off certain cancers. The interplay between immunity and overall health continues being studied but the results are remarkable.

Emotions and Inflammation

Researchers have known for some time that chronic stress is responsible for the body’s inability to regulate inflammation. Inflammation in the body is implicated in many health conditions including Type 2 diabetes, auto-immune disorders, heart disease, cerebral vascular disease, Alzheimer’s, and even obesity!

What they’re discovering now is that positive emotions appear to have the ability to reduce inflammation. Although the studies are not conclusive, researchers are encouraged by tests which show improvement in patients who experienced a variety of positive feelings such as joy, optimism, and determination.

Emotions and Lifestyle

Your lifestyle is an important part of your health. Diet, exercise, and refraining from excessive drinking, smoking cigarettes and drug use are a key part of staying healthy. So, where does self-confidence come into the equation?

The bottom line is that feeling good about yourself motivates you to practice healthy habits. Feeling bad about yourself leads to neglect which can result in obesity, self-harm, drug abuse, alcoholism, and overall neglect.

Scientists learn more about how emotions affect our physical health every day but we currently know enough to demonstrate the importance of taking a holistic approach.

There are really four main things under our control when it comes to good health:

Make a decision to maintain a healthy weight while eating a good diet,

Having a commitment to exercise,

Trying to stop smoking or abusing alcohol and drugs,

And maintaining a positive attitude.

And having a positive attitude is what will ultimately help you stay on track when it comes to the other three things.

Cultivating self-confidence will pay off in terms of the overall quality of your life and will most certainly help to achieve better health.